NASCAR opinion, analysis and news
Here’s a recap of the videos I made from the recent trip to Las Vegas.
Short version of the ridealong with Denny Hamlin:
Long version of the ridealong with Denny Hamlin:
NASCAR tire carrier Paul Swan’s marriage proposal to Monster Energy girl Mariel Lane after the awards ceremony:
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Martin Truex Jr., Kyle Busch, Brad Keselowski, Jimmie Johnson, Chase Elliott, Kyle Larson, Matt Kenseth, Denny Hamlin, Erik Jones, Austin Dillon and Sherry Pollex play along as I ambush them for a podcast at Champions Week in Las Vegas.
There will be an intriguing new face on pit road when FOX Sports begins next season’s NASCAR coverage at Daytona.
FOX is expected to announce later today that Regan Smith, the veteran racer who worked as an analyst for FS1’s Race Hub, will become FOX’s newest pit reporter and join Jamie Little, Matt Yocum and Vince Welch on pit road. Chris Neville had been a pit reporter for FOX but will not return.
Smith made 13 starts in the Camping World Truck Series this season — as well as two starts in the Richard Petty Motorsports No. 43 car and one start for Joe Gibbs Racing in the Xfinity Series — which means he brings a current driver’s viewpoint to his analysis. That has worked well on Race Hub and also shined during an Xfinity Series broadcast last season at Iowa.
“My biggest goal in joining pit road is to be able to give viewers something they didn’t know before or to better help them understand something going on with the driver or the car,” Smith said in a statement. “Since I am still competing, I can put into perspective what a driver is feeling at a particular moment.”
The new pit reporter role for Smith will be for both Cup Series and Xfinity broadcasts on FOX.
Smith doesn’t have any current plans to compete next season, but indicated he hasn’t driven his last race. There seems to be a movement in NASCAR TV right now toward more current analysts — FOX has Jeff Gordon and Smith, while NBC just hired Dale Earnhardt Jr. to go along with Jeff Burton, Steve Letarte and Parker Kligerman — who, like Smith, has balanced insightful analysis with maintaining an active driving career.
Steve Craddock, FOX Sports senior vice president of NASCAR Production, said Smith’s stint as an analyst during the Iowa race last year opened executives’ eyes to his potential as a broadcaster.
“A fan and peer favorite, he has proven himself seamless in translating his years of driving experience to the viewers at home,” Craddock said in a statement.
Aside from Smith, the FOX broadcasts will have a familiar look. Mike Joy, Darrell Waltrip and Gordon return to the Cup booth, with Larry McReynolds as an additional analyst. Adam Alexander and Michael Waltrip will broadcast the FOX portion of the Xfinity Series — with a rotation of Cup driver guest analysts — and Welch will call the Truck Series races alongside Phil Parsons and Waltrip.
Pit reporters for the Xfinity races will be Little, Yocum and Smith; Hermie Sadler, Kaitlyn Vincie and Alan Cavanna will call pit road in the Trucks.
In addition, FOX is expected to bring back its “Drivers Only” broadcast for an Xfinity race in 2018 after it was well-received at Pocono this season.
Each week during this season of Survivor, I’ll be ranking the castaways in terms of best chance to win the game. Last week, Cole was voted off after being ranked No. 10 of the 10 remaining players.
1. Lauren (Last week: 2): As all the frontrunners keep making mistakes (Ryan telling too many people about his idol, Chrissy getting too cocky, Ben being too bossy), Lauren’s chances improve. She’s tight with Ben, and now Devon is in their mini-alliance; she also has an extra vote to use when she wants. Obviously she’s playing quietly and under the radar, but that only helps her chances of reaching the end.
2. Devon (Last week: 5): I’m putting him up high for the same reason as Lauren — I’m frustrated with Ben, Ryan and Chrissy making mistakes right now and am starting to doubt their long-term chances. Devon wisely chose to team with Ben after hearing about Ryan’s big mouth, and can you blame him?
3. Ben (Last week: 4): Still the best of the frontrunners, but I didn’t like how he was being so controlling of the vote and not listening to others. That “chief” label has burned many players.
4. Ryan (Last week: 1): He’s going to have to scramble now that he broke Devon’s trust (and doesn’t even realize it yet). But his game was always going to be about scrambling, so he still has a shot.
5. Chrissy (Last week: 3): She just seems way too comfortable with the seven-person alliance. I don’t feel like she’s playing a winning game right now. Ben has slipped away to be tighter with Lauren, and who does she really have aside from Ryan? Plus, I’m still stunned she didn’t count the votes correctly last week when Lauren used the advantage. She’s supposed to be a math whiz!
6. Mike (Last week: 6): Really, Mike? REALLY? He talked like he was making this game-altering move…and then he totally misplayed his idol. Just wasted it! And he apparently flopped in trying to draw more votes his way, which made people mad in the process. I feel like perhaps he just got too antsy and impatient; maybe if he waited a few more days, cracks would have formed in the seven-person alliance.
7. Joe (Last week: 8): C’mon. No one is going to vote for Joe to win a million bucks at this point. He might get dragged to the final three, but I can’t picture him winning after making so many people mad.
8. Ashley (Last week: 7): I felt bad for her after Joe called her out as being a goat, but…dang, he’s kind of right. What is Ashley doing strategically to win the game? Not much that we’re seeing. She’s sort of becoming a floater as the alliance cruises along, and I can’t see that being rewarded in the end if she doesn’t make some big moves.
9. JP (Last week: 9): Hello? JP? You know you’re still out on the island, right? You can start playing now. Annnnnytime now.
Eliminated:
Week 1: Katrina (ranked No. 6 of 18 remaining players)
Week 2: Simone (ranked No. 17 of 17 remaining players)
Week 3: Patrick (ranked No. 16 of 16 remaining players)
Week 4: Alan (ranked No. 13 of 15 remaining players)
Week 5: Roark (ranked No. 10 of 14 remaining players)
Week 6: Ali (ranked No. 5 of 13 remaining players)
Week 7: Jessica (ranked No. 9 of 12 remaining players)
Week 8: Desi (ranked No. 8 of 11 remaining players)
Week 9: Cole (ranked No. 10 of 10 remaining players)
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My mom and dad return to the podcast to share their thoughts on the recently completed NASCAR season with a look ahead to 2018.
What happened: The number of pit crew members will shrink from six to five and race teams will only be allowed 12 road crew members (the people who work on the car) starting next season in an effort to standardize crew sizes. Previously, there was no limit on crew members. In addition, NASCAR will distribute crew rosters and put numbers on each crew uniform to raise the profile of team members and emphasize the team concept.
What it means: A few things, but the most notable change for fans is a different look for pit stops. The gas man will only be allowed to fuel the car and nothing else, so that leaves four crew members to service the car — the probable lineup will be a jack man, two tire changers and only one tire carrier. That will slow down pit stops and force teams to innovate on how best to do a pit stop — something NASCAR’s Steve O’Donnell said was “one of the beauties” of the new rule. In addition, NASCAR’s road crew cap should help with parity — the bigger teams can’t bring unlimited crew to the track anymore — and teams will have to get creative on how they use those slots. Also, expect to hear more about various team members like mechanics and shock specialists and engine tuners (although personally I think NASCAR should put 100 percent of its efforts into promoting the drivers as stars instead of trying to get people to talk about the team. NASCAR needs superstar drivers more than ever now).
News value (scale of 1-10): Five. The number of road crew members will have no noticeable impact for fans, except teams will now save money (although NASCAR emphasized “parity” instead of citing cost savings). But pit stops will be slower — it’s unclear how much — and you would think raise the chance for a mistake, so that’s certainly something newsworthy. Overall, though, it doesn’t feel like this is major news for anyone but the most hardcore fans.
Three questions: How much longer will pit stops take next year, and which team will be the first to come up with the best choreography for the fastest pit stop? Do fans really want to know more about the people working on the cars, or would they rather get more coverage of the drivers? How many people will ultimately lose their jobs as a result of this change?
Five thoughts after Sunday’s championship race at Homestead-Miami Speedway…
Ladies and gentlemen, Martin Truex Jr. is a NASCAR Cup Series champion.
It’s too bad we can’t send messages from the future back to our past selves, because it would have been almost impossible to believe that a few years ago.
In 2014, Truex wrapped up his first season at Furniture Row Racing with a single lap led. He finished 24th in points. And he had two career wins to his name at the time.
Now he’s the dominant car of the past two seasons, with 12 wins and 4,062 laps led in that span. Plus he’s got a championship to go with it.
I’m as guilty of this as anyone, but due to his career history (two wins in his first nine seasons) it’s been easy to just say, “The cars are just that good” when talking about Truex’s success. Since he didn’t win much until Cole Pearn showed up as crew chief and Furniture Row improved, Truex probably hasn’t gotten enough credit as a driver.
That should change after Sunday night. Kyle Busch was chasing him down — with what appeared to be a better car — and stalking him in case there was even the slightest bobble in the 78 car.
“Then I could try to pounce,” Busch said. “But that never happened.”
Truex drove a flawless 20 laps and showed he’s worthy of being in the conversation about the sport’s best drivers.
Toyotas are elite, but as Brad Keselowski noted: “He’s still beating the other Toyotas, so he deserves credit for that.”
Good point, right? And that’s not lost on Truex.
Yes, he’s basically driving a Joe Gibbs Racing car — just tweaked by Furniture Row. But he’s beating all the JGR drivers with it.
“That’s the coolest part of it, is showing people that you’ve got it, that you can do it,” Truex said. “It’s the best feeling in the world to have the same thing as somebody else and beat ’em with it.”
And Truex was especially pumped about out-driving Busch, who he called “one of the best drivers ever.”
“To beat him,” Truex said, “was awesome.”
When Dale Earnhardt Jr. told the media about his goals for the weekend — I just want to finish all the laps, he kept saying — it turns out he was only telling part of the story.
There was a reason behind the wish: He wanted to turn his No. 88 car into a mobile Whisky River, right there on pit road.
“That’s why I kept saying, ‘Man, I hope I finish all the laps,'” he said with a grin. “I know it sounds ridiculous, but that’s really why I was saying that. Everyone says, ‘Who are you going to miss the most?’ and it’s my family. (The 88 team) is my family. We are so close.
“I told them, ‘The one thing I want to do is finish the race, and we’re going to drink a beer together.’ That’s the only thing that kept coming to my mind about what I do when I get out of the car: I want to have a beer with my guys. I want to have a moment with them that sort of closes it up for us.”
So there they were, Earnhardt and the members of the 88 team, using the car as a bar and chugging Budweisers in the middle of a mob scene on pit road. If it was possible to have an intimate moment while surrounded by a couple hundred people, they had it.
Earnhardt and the crew posed for selfies, tossed beers at each other until the coolers were empty and raised toast after toast.
Ayyyyyyyyyyyyyy, they yelled in unison, holding their cans to the sky.
“Standing around the car and the heat coming off the car and drinking them cold beers — they were so cold, they had them in those Yeti (coolers), man. Those things are so awesome,” Earnhardt said. “That’s what I wanted. I said, ‘Whatever I do after the race, I don’t care about anything else — I just want to have a beer with my team.'”
It was one of the most unusual postrace scenes in NASCAR history. But it was the first step toward normalcy — something Earnhardt is craving after a weekend he called “weird.”
All the various things swirling around Earnhardt — his retirement from the Cup Series, the upcoming birth of his first child, his best friend winning the championship, his team’s Xfinity Series success, his new job with NBC Sports — it all played into it.
“I’ve got this job next year that I got to get ready for that I have no idea what the hell I’m doing. I know nothing about it. I’m freaking out,” he said. “There’s just so many things happening for me. I mean, what the hell!? It’s ridiculous what’s going on in my life. So I can’t put my emotions about finishing my Cup career in a capsule. I can’t single it out.”
So what’s next? A hangover, Earnhardt predicted. But then he hoped for an uneventful week ahead.
“It’s been an amazing weekend,” he said. “I’m ready to go feel normal, though. I’m ready to go just do nothing for awhile.”
He looked at the group of reporters. His team had left — the celebration was over for now — and Earnhardt lingered on pit road, willing to fill reporters’ notepads with golden quotes like he’d done so often over the years.
“But I’ll miss all y’all,” he said. “And I’ll be back because of that.”
With that, Earnhardt smiled, gave a thumbs up and disappeared into the crowd of waiting fans one more time.
The primary reason for Kyle Busch not being able to catch Truex in the final laps, Busch said, was a tough battle with Joey Logano.
Busch had been on his way toward the front and easily passed Kevin Harvick, but then he reached Logano. That pass proved to be a lot tougher.
Logano took the top lane and pinched Busch down; Busch had to back out of it, reset for a couple laps and try again.
“Just wasting too much time with him,” Busch said afterward. “He held me up. He was there blocking every chance he got, so got a real buddy there. But that’s racing. That’s what happens.”
Logano’s move was subtle, and perhaps it was nothing more than racing hard for his own victory — but it does raise questions.
For example: Did Busch’s ongoing rivalry with Logano teammate Brad Keselowski play a part in the hard racing? Or perhaps did lingering ill will between the two — Busch did punch Logano in the face earlier this year, after all — have anything to do with it?
There aren’t any quotes from Logano on the post-race transcripts about that, but I’d love to know whether that played a role.
If so, it’s just another example of the entire season building toward the pinnacle that is Homestead.
Leave it to Brad Keselowski to get one more shot in before the offseason begins.
Keselowski stumped hard for NASCAR to help Ford after claiming Toyota got too much help with its new nose this season.
If you missed it, here are his comments:
“When that car (the new Camry) rolled out at Daytona and I think we all got to see it for the first time, I think there were two reactions. One, we couldn’t believe NASCAR approved it, and, two, we were impressed by the design team over there.
“With that said, I don’t think anyone really ever had a shot this year the second that thing got put on the racetrack and approved. It kind of felt a little bit like Formula 1, where you have one car that kind of makes it through the gate heads and tails above everyone, and your hands are tied because you’re not allowed to do anything to the cars in those categories that NASCAR approves to really catch up.”
Keselowski concluded by saying he assumed Chevrolet “would be allowed to design a car the same way Toyota was” in terms of the new Camaro — and Ford doesn’t have any plans for a redesign.
“If that’s the case, we’re gonna take a drubbing next year,” Keselowski said.
Honestly, I don’t have any problem with what Keselowski said. He’s very calculating and certainly knows his words will get picked up and echo around the garage.
He also knows he’s going to get criticized for whining or being a loudmouth, but he’s willing to sacrifice that in order to get his point across.
If it helps, and the talk somehow generates rule changes in Ford’s favor, then it will all be worth it.
5. Thoughts on 2018
There’s going to be plenty of time to reflect on this season and what next year might bring, but here are a few thoughts on what lies ahead.
The biggest storylines heading into Daytona next year will be NASCAR’s new identity — Life After Dale, so to speak. The hype and marketing push for the young drivers will be even bigger than this year, and the pressure will increase on the likes of Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott and Ryan Blaney to produce.
On the track, there will be much talk about whether the new Chevrolet nose with the incoming Camaro can somehow help the manufacturer gain on Toyota. If not — and with only minor changes to the 2018 rules package — there’s no reason to think Truex and the JGR drivers can’t dominate again next season.
Overall, the goal for 2018 should be to determine a floor for NASCAR’s long slide. Attendance and ratings will almost certainly be down every week — a natural side effect of the most popular driver leaving — so that’s just going to be a fact of life. But the sport should look at that and say, “OK, this is the low point; now we rebuild.” Use it as a launching point for a new era and get on track toward strengthening NASCAR’s health for the next generation.